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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22509358">Tony Stark Has A Heart</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/thudworm/pseuds/thudworm'>thudworm</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tony Stark Bingo 2020 [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Avengers (Marvel Movies)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Canon-Typical Injury, Flashbacks, Gen, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-23</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-04-28 08:49:14</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,013</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22509358</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/thudworm/pseuds/thudworm</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony isn’t a complete idiot- he knows that his truckload of issues didn’t begin with the wormhole, even though that was when the nightmares and other symptoms started. But this newest trigger managed to take him completely by surprise.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Tony Stark &amp; Avengers Team</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Tony Stark Bingo 2020 [1]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1619530</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>65</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Tony Stark Bingo 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Tony Stark Has A Heart</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Title: Tony Stark Has A Heart<br/>Collaborator Name: thudworm<br/>Card Number: 3093<br/>Square Filled: S4- [Image of the Arc Reactor from IM1]<br/>Ship/Main Pairing: Gen<br/>Rating: Gen<br/>Major Tags: PTSD, Flashbacks<br/>Summary: Tony isn’t a complete idiot- he knows that his truckload of issues didn’t begin with the wormhole, even though that was when the nightmares and other symptoms started. But this newest trigger managed to take him completely by surprise.<br/></p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Tony isn’t a complete idiot- he knows that his truckload of issues didn’t begin with the wormhole, even though that was when the nightmares and other symptoms started. But this newest trigger managed to take him completely by surprise. </p>
<p>It was a standard call to Assemble, as far as any Avengers mission could be considered typical. If everything had gone to plan they would have been able to complete their after action reports without a second thought, except Steve was a self-sacrificing idiot. </p>
<p>He had been using the shield to provide cover to a civilian caught up in the battle, leaving himself exposed. The blow had been hard enough to break even a supersoldier’s bone, badly enough for it to be breaking through skin.</p>
<p>It was one of those injuries that was more painful than life-threatening, which, as it turns out, is a more serious problem for Steve than it would be for anyone else. </p>
<p>Tony stays by Steve’s side as Clint goes to fetch the SHIELD medics, and Natasha makes her displeasure known to the idiot responsible for Steve’s injury. The medics are all calm professionalism as they follow Clint, but apparently he didn’t mention who it was they were there to treat. Upon seeing Steve lying there in the ground the medics exchange troubled looks, and Tony feels his heart leap into his throat in response. </p>
<p>“What’s wrong?” Tony demands, at the same time as Bruce seemingly materialises from thin air and asks “is it more serious than it looks?”</p>
<p>“I can’t say for sure until we get scans done,” one of the medics replies, “but odds are it’ll require surgery.”</p>
<p>“We should get him transported ASAP,” the other medic says. </p>
<p>It’s only when they go to move Steve, causing him to groan in pain, that Tony realises there’s something they’ve forgotten to do. “Aren’t you going to give him something for the pain? Hell, just knock him out completely, before you start jostling him all over the place?”</p>
<p>“If it was anyone else, we would. But there’s nothing we have that his metabolism won’t burn off in minutes, if not seconds.”</p>
<p>“What the fuck do you mean you don’t have anything to give him?” Clint demands of the SHIELD medics surrounding the Captain. </p>
<p>“They mean he’s going to be in surgery to fix the compound fracture with nothing, maybe a belt to bite down on if they’re feeling generous.” Bruce sounds the closest to going green that Tony has heard outside of combat, and Tony can’t exactly blame him. If he was the one sharing a brain with the Hulk odds are he’d already be off on a smashing spree in the face of Steve’s pain. </p>
<p>JARVIS is in his ear telling him he needs to take a few deep breaths, but his attempts to follow JARVIS’ instructions go to shit when one of the medics asks, baffled, why they’re all making such a big deal about it this time. Because this has happened before. </p>
<p>Steve has gone through this before. </p>
<p>Been strapped to a bed with nothing to dull his senses while someone does painful things in the name of keeping alive. </p>
<p>Maybe it’s been realigning dislocated joints, or cleaning wounds. Stitching cuts and gashes, or extracting a bullet. Or.</p>
<p>Maybe.</p>
<p>Cutting him open. Digging around inside him. </p>
<p>Tony can feel the phantom echo of Yinsen’s hands in his chest. But he can’t feel the weight of that fucking car battery. He hates it for tethering him to this cave, like an anchor. But it being missing is even worse. </p>
<p>His chest is getting tighter and tighter, he can feel the sharp pain as those shards of shrapnel shift ever closer to his heart.</p>
<p>He has to find the battery. Needs it. Like a drowning man needs air, or someone lost in the desert needs water.</p>
<p>What does he have to do to get his lifeline back? Why would Raza’s men take it from him when they still think he’s going to make weapons for them?</p>
<p>There are voices shouting at him, but he can’t make out what they’re saying. There are hands on him, but he doesn’t know what they want. </p>
<p>Unless. </p>
<p>Have they figured out his escape plan? He’s been so careful. The blueprints have been kept scattered in pieces, and he’s kept the armour away from any of the cameras he knows they’re constantly watching. </p>
<p>The suit. Of armour.</p>
<p>Iron Man. </p>
<p>He is Iron Man. </p>
<p>Reality comes flooding back to him. </p>
<p>The hands on him are Natasha, undoing the emergency releases of the armour and checking him over for injury. The voice calling to him is Clint, telling him he needs to take a breath, that he’s safe, that Steve is going to be fine. </p>
<p>Tony can’t quite manage to take a breath, though, not until he gets his hands free of the gauntlets and can feel the presence of the arc reactor, solidly in his chest like it’s supposed to be. </p>
<p>That first proper inhale is all it takes to break the dam wall, and now Tony can’t stop taking deep, shuddering breaths. </p>
<p>Eventually his breathing returns to normal. Between the flashback and the comedown, Tony’s lost all sense of time, but his team is still right there with him.</p>
<p>He’s sure the embarrassment of losing control so publicly will hit him soon, but right now he’s too tired to care. His body feels like he’s just run a marathon, underwater, and emotionally he’s spent. </p>
<p>“Let’s go home,” he says, and even though the others exchange significant looks, no one disagrees. </p>
<p>In order to head off the inevitable questions Tony engages Bruce to brainstorm a solution to Steve’s problem. Now that they know there even is a problem, neither of them will rest until it’s solved. </p>
<p>Later, once Steve is okay and <em> home</em>, Tony is sure the entire team will badger him until he spills the truth; but somehow that doesn’t bother him as much as it once would. He would do the same for any of the others, because that’s what family are for. </p>
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